If I’ve said this once I’ve said it 100 times but looking down is the most common of rider faults (guilty as charged over here!!). I’m pretty sure that your horse is not going to disappear out from under you, and yet we all love to stare down at our horses’ head when riding!!
It is so common and yet it has a really significant impact on our position. Our eyeline moves our head, and our head moves our body! This week we’ve got the amazing Equestrian Physio Specialist Stephanie Seheult from Ride Advanced Physiotherapy back with us and she’s going to show us the correct way to look up!
Before we start explaining the correct way to look up, let’s talk about why looking down is bad!
Firstly, your head weighs about as much as a bowling ball (between 10-15lbs), but motion will increase the force of your head coming down on the horses’ body to upwards of 60lbs.
Secondly, when you look down, it pulls the muscles in the back of your neck, collapses your chest, and inhibits your breathing which reduces the amount of oxygen in your muscles.
It is really important that when you look up, you do it correctly and that you get the alignment of your ear directly above your shoulder so that the weight of your head goes down through your spine. (Often our heat pokes too much forward).
In order to look up CORRECTLY, you need to slide your chin back and slightly tuck it in and almost create a double chin. Think about lengthening the back of the neck by lifting the back of the skull away from the shoulders to open the angle between your shoulders and the bottom of your head.
Have a look and watch me taking instruction from Stephanie and demonstrate this while I’m riding Natasha and let me know if you find it helpful!
